Indian Diplomat Strip-Searched In New York Has Been Indicted For Drastically Underpaying Her Maid

Devyani Khobragade
AP Photo/Mohammed Jaffer
The Indian diplomat who was strip-searched and accused of paying her housekeeper far less than she claimed on a visa application has been indicted on charges of visa fraud and making false statements.

Devyani Khobragade's treatment in New York has been the subject of large-scale protests in India. Originally it was reported that she had left the U.S. on Thursday, but, according to the New York Daily News, she is still in the country at the time of writing.

The indictment alleges that Khobragade tried to "silence and intimidate the victim and her family and lie to Indian authorities and courts," according to The Times.

Prosecutors say that she paid her housekeeper only $3 an hour despite claiming on visa documents that her maid was paid $4,500 a month.

Khobragade's case and her treatment while in U.S. custody has caused conflict between America and India, and India has retaliated by revoking some privileges for U.S. diplomats, according to The Guardian.

Khobragade was India's deputy consul general in New York.

In an email published on an Indian media website last month, she wrote of her treatment when she was arrested:

"I broke down many times as the indignities of repeated handcuffing, stripping and cavity searches, swabbing, in a holdup with common criminals and drug addicts were all being imposed upon me despite my incessant assertions of immunity."